


Birthday Beginnings

by flightinflame



Category: X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies)
Genre: Canon Disabled Character, Charles Xavier has a Ph.D in Adorable, Childhood Friends, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-22
Updated: 2019-12-22
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:21:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,052
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21905140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flightinflame/pseuds/flightinflame
Summary: It's Tony Stark's eighth birthday party, and he's bored, until he hears an English accent in his head.
Relationships: Emma Frost & Tony Stark & Charles Xavier
Comments: 4
Kudos: 49
Collections: Secret Mutant Madness 2019





	Birthday Beginnings

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by [lachatblanche](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lachatblanche/pseuds/lachatblanche) in the [secret_mutant_madness_2019](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/secret_mutant_madness_2019) collection. 



> **Prompt:**
> 
> ANYTHING with Charles and Emma and Tony as best friends who are utterly inseparable and into each other and it's basically just them against the world and no one and nothing (boyfriends, girlfriends, becoming a superhero, life) can come between them.

Tony stared out across a sea of people that he didn’t know, feeling a little sick. Officially, this party was to celebrate his eighth birthday, but really it was a chance for his parents to show off their wealth and talk to other adults, and ignore him. His mother was already drunk, which left him feeling quite sick, and he lowered his head. He didn’t particularly want to be here, but he knew he had to be. It would be a few hours yet before he could sneak away, and until then he would just have to sit and be patient.

 _Awful, isn’t it?_ An English boy’s voice sounded in his head, and he looked around in confusion. He spotted his father – he was talking to a woman and her child. There was a boy his age sat in a funny wheeled chair, his mother’s hand on his head. The boy looked like he wanted to cry, but Tony’s father looked happy.

Tony frowned.

 _Hello there. I’m Charles._ The boy’s voice continued. _You’ve spotted me, I’m in the wheelchair. I’m a telepath. I don’t suppose you’d be kind enough to come over and persuade my mother that I should play with the other children? I really would be grateful, I’m rather despising the way your father is talking about my chair._

Tony frowned. He was pretty sure that he was imagining it, but the boy did look absolutely miserable, and it wouldn’t be too hard. Plus having someone to talk to would be fun. So he made his way over, shooting his father a polite smile.

“Would it be possible for me to talk to him? He’s the only person here my age?” Tony begged, and his father paused for a moment and then nodded.

“Be careful with Charles, Anthony. He’s fragile.”

An absolutely furious light filled the other boy’s eyes, but he smiled peacefully, and put his hands on the wheel rims, moving away from the adults.

“Thank you ever so much,” Charles said, his voice as English as it had appeared in Tony’s thoughts. “I really was worried I was going to be taken straight to the labs, and I don’t need a drunk man messing with my chair, my step-father kicking it is bad enough.”

“He kicks it?”

“He put me in it.” Charles muttered, and then shook his head. “I’m sorry. I’m Charles Xavier. Heir to the Westchester estate, blah blah.” He smiled softly. “I have normally been able to get out of these dreadful affairs before, but…well, running away is a little harder now.”

“You spoke in my head.” Tony pointed out.

“Yes, I did.” The boy sighed. “Please don’t make a fuss about it, I would hate to have to take that knowledge away, and have to make up an excuse.”

“I won’t tell.” Tony frowned. “You want me to get you some apple juice? Food?”

“That would be wonderful.” Charles agreed, making his way over to the buffet table. Tony frowned, realising that the table was too high for Charles to reach any of it. He put some food on the plate, thinking about whether or not a flying chair would be possible.

“A shorter table would work just as well.” Charles told him with a smile. “But thank you for thinking about it.” Charles took his plate, placing it on his lap as he followed Tony over to a quiet corner. There was a pause, and he closed his eyes, then opened them.  
“Emma’s here.”

“Emma?”

“I’ll just call her over. She’s my friend, you’ll really like her.” Charles insisted. “She’s like me.”

A girl of around ten approached, beautiful blond curls falling over her shoulder, her white dress stainless and sparkling with diamante. She looked at Tony, and he ducked his head slightly.

“Emma Frost,” she held out her hand. “You’re Tony Stark. And I know Charles already.”

“I thought we could include Tony in our games.” Charles explained. “Emma’s father likes her to stick close, so she and I have to talk telepathically, but Emma is really funny. We play guessing games and try to work out who people are, it’s very fun.”

“Oh…” Tony hesitated, then nodded. “That sounds good.”

“Cain is about to come and see me.” Charles muttered. “I’ll see you later.” 

A hulking brute of a boy wandered over, gripping the handles of Charles’s chair and pulling him away. Tony could see the fear in Charles’s eyes, and he didn’t like it.  
“Leave him alone!” he shouted. “That’s not… You can’t just grab him.”

“He’s my step brother. I can!” Cain answered, storming off. Tony stepped forwards, reaching out to put his hand on the older boy’s arm, but he couldn’t move his arm. He heard Emma’s voice in his head.

 _Don’t, sugar. You help him now, it’ll be worse for him later._ She smiled at him sadly, and then swept up a smaller boy who wandered over dressed in white, matching her. “This is Christian. He’s my brother. We’d best be going.” She nodded to Tony, then walked away.

 _Thank you for trying,_ Charles’s voice in his head was soft. Shy. _I really appreciate it. But I can handle Cain._

_You shouldn’t have to._

_No. Well, you shouldn’t have to manage what you do._ Charles said softly, and Tony felt exposed, awkward. But then he supposed the two telepaths understood. This was their world as well. 

_I could make handles for your chair you can fold down. So Cain can’t grab you._ Tony offered, once he’d worked out the mechanism, and as his father was getting more drunk. 

_That would be perfect. I’ll see if I can persuade mother to let me meet with you again, and we can go from there…_ Charles promised. _I’m sure I can persuade her that a friendship with a boy my age would be good for me._

 _And your father is rich enough that mine might let me talk to you both._ Emma added.

It was the start of a wonderful friendship between the three of them, one that would hep them through loss and loneliness, and give them hope. As time passed, the three of them became closer, and got to flourish under the knowledge that they would never have to be alone the way they had been before.


End file.
